Title: Crocodile Tears Author: Anthony Horowitz Reasons: I chose this book because I like the way Horowitz writes his novels. Every page, something unexpected happens, and it makes the reader not want to put the book down at all.
Genre: First, Crocodile Tears fits into the Young Adult fiction genre. This is because the protagonist is a fourteen year old spy named Alex Rider. No kid has done what he has done in the first fourteen years of his life. He has worked for MI6 for seven previous missions, and he has more physical and emotional scars as a result of it than any other youngster should have. He also was shot by a sniper, and the bullet nearly killed him. These intense missions, combined with the author's diction and writing style, make the book very interesting and intriguing to mostly young adults. Second, it is also in the spy and thriller genre. It fits perfectly into this one because it is basically about a "teenage James Bond." He is always being used by MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, because of his size and body shape. As he is relatively small, he is relatively nimble and agile, and he can fit into spaces where other agents can't, thus resulting in his usefulness. In his other missions, he has had to hack a computer program, rescue kids from a boarding school owned by a psychopath, prevent the Russians from blowing up the US, preventing a pop singer from committing genocide towards Muslims, stopped a massive criminal organization from poisoning all school children in London, prevented a Russian madman from launching the ISS at Washington DC, preventing Scorpia from creating a tsunami, and last but not least, he stopped the criminal who was involved in the blowing up of an Indian nuclear plant. These types of books interest me because I was completely absorbed and enthralled by the action in them, and this is the main reason why I decided to read the Alex Rider series.
Plot: The book Crocodile Tearsis interesting from the moment the book is opened. For example, it begins with Ravi Chandra, a poor man from the streets of Chennai, India being bribed by some conmen. He was told that if he set off the Jowada Nuclear Plant to the south of Chennai, he would get rich, could move to Bangalore, India, and eventually take his children to Disney World. He detonates the nuclear plant, resulting in the deaths of 900,000 people and the injuring of 2.5 million others. On the contrary to what was promised, he dies, and his family did not reap the benefit. After the catastrophe, the first organization to act is First Aid, a charity who is owned by a ex-prisoner and now Reverend named Desmond McCain. Meanwhile, Alex Rider, an agent for MI6, is at a Scottish castle, celebrating New Year's with his girlfriend Sabina Pleasure and her family. The host of this party happens to be Desmond McCain, the founder of this charity. Edward Pleasure, Sabina's father, is writing a celebrity profile on McCain, and he felt that this is the best way to get to know him a bit. At this party, Alex loses his way, and finds himself in McCain's [[#|casino]], and he ends up playing cards with him and many other celebrities, who happen to be wagering money. Alex is broke, but McCain is generous and gives him some money to bet with. Alex, who felt slighted by McCain, was then determined to win, and he finally wins $25,000.00. this makes McCain suspicious of the true identity of this boy. As Edward, Sabina, and Alex are driving to their hotel, their tire gets shot by a sniper and they fall into a lake. They are almost drowning when they are rescued by Rahim, an Indian Intelligence Agent whose identity is initially unknown as he is under cover. Rahim happens to work for the R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) section of the Indian Government. This is a highly sophisticated intelligence agency. Alex was on christmas break during this adventure, and after he returns to school, he studies genetically modified plants. After this, Alan Blunt, the chief of MI6, and Mrs. Jones, his assistant, notice something peculiar about Leonard Straik, the head of a huge, British company called Greenfields. This company produces genetically modified plants. After having had a break from MI6 for nearly six months, Alex is recruited once more, and is debriefed on his investigation of Leonard Straik. His invasion of this facility is made easier in that Brookland Academy, his school, has planned a field trip there. He invades the facility, jams the cameras, sneaks into the Straik's office, and hacks his computer. He then listens to a conversation between Straik and another man, who Alex later realizes is Desmond McCain, and they are talking about shady diabolical plans. At the end of this meeting, Leonard Straik realizes that his computer has been hacked. Alex has to escape, and to do so he first gets stuck in the Poison Dome, the part of the plant facility housing poisonous plants. He then is confronted by guards, and escapes through the chimney, at which point he jumps on his school bus and that breaks a few of his ribs. His carelessness gets him suspended from his school, and this time off gives Alex to follow the two men. He goes to this facility near Heathrow Airport, and watches their activities. Alex is spotted, at which point McCain and Straik set the building on fire He then has to escape by crawling through a vent, and narrowly does so. Then, McCain realizes they have been foiled as he is nowhere to be found, and on both accounts, his sources reveal a teenager is responsible. Then, one day, Alex is walking to school, and he sees a FedEx truck where no one lives, so he walks up to it, and is detained, thrown inside the bus, and driven off into the distance. This is when the true story begins.
Characters:
Alex Rider: He is the main character, or protagonist in this book. All the books: Stormbreaker, Point Blank, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel, Snakehead, Crocodile Tears, and Scorpia Rising are centered on him. In all these books, he's recruited by Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones of MI6 to do intelligence work as a Field Agent. Alex is an orphan. His parents John and Helen Rider were killed in an airplane crash on the island of Malta by Ash, Alex's Godfather, who was a double agent whose allegiance was to SCORPIA, an international criminal organization which stands for Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence, and Assassination. Alex's father John was thought to have been a contract killer for SCORPIA, but that was under cover. He was working for MI6, but he was giving SCORPIA the impression that he was on their side, and everyone believed it. Later, SCORPIA found him out, and sent Ash to kill him. After his parents were killed, he was sent to live with his uncle Ian Rider, who was also an MI6 agent. Ian was rarely at home, and when Alex was seven, he employed an arts student in college by the name of Jack Starbright, who would later become one of Alex's closest allies and one of the only people he could trust. When Alex was a bit older, Ian was killed by Herod Sayle in southern England, and his first mission is to investigate this. When Ian dies, Jack Starbright becomes his permanent guardian, and she is like a big sister figure to Alex. As the novels go on, Jack does not want Alex to work for MI6, but then Alex realizes that he cannot refuse MI6 because they manipulate him to do what they want every time. One such instance occurs in this book in which he wants to bail out, but he can't. This says, "Good afternoon Alex.' She didn't exactly seem pleased to see him. Her face was completely neutral. 'How are you?' 'I'm fine, thank you, Mrs. Jones.' 'We're ready to see you.' She turned to Jack. 'I'll bring Alex back down in about half an hour.' Jack stood up. 'I'm coming too.' 'I'm afraid not. Mr. Blunt prefers to see Alex on his own.' 'Then we're leaving.' Mrs. Jones shrugged. 'That's your choice. But you said on the telephone that you needed our help.' 'It's all right, Jack." Alex could see the way this was going, and he had quickly made his decision." This illustrates how pushy MI6 can be to Alex, and how powerless Alex is against them.
Jack Starbright: She is Alex Rider's best friend, and is the closest person to him. She does not want anything horrible to happen to him, and she does not like the MI6 because they have put Alex's life in danger many times. She refuses for Alex to work with MI6, but in the end they win. Alex is forced to comply, which makes her worried sick about the safety of her little-brother-like figure. She has been with him on his mission to Amsterdam during Eagle Strike, and to Sydney during Snakehead. After the death of Ian Rider, she does not want Alex to do anything with MI6, and has always been his strongest advocate when it comes to them. One quote that illustrates this is, "Exactly. He shows a film of some village that doesn't exist. People send in money. He gets to keep it.' Jack thought about it for a moment, and then shook her head. 'It wouldn't work, Alex. These days, everything is on TV or in the newspapers. People wouldn't find out soon enough if it wasn't true.' 'Can you think of something else?' 'No. But I think we should go back to MI6 and leave it to them this time. She glanced meaningfully at him. 'Okay?' Alex smiled. 'That's what I'd already decided,' he said. 'Do you mind going back?' 'Of course not,' Jack replied." This quote illustrates that she wants Alex to hand the job back to MI6, and not be involved anymore.
3. Desmond McCain: Desmond McCain is an ordained (Reverend) ex-conman who owns a large charity organization called First Aid. This organization was the one that responded to the Chennai Nuclear Disaster first, and hence received the majority of the proceeds that were donated. Alex Rider first encounters him at a Scottish Castle with Edward and Sabina Pleasure. He meets him when Edward is interviewing him because he has to write a section in the newspapers about a biography on Desmond McCain. While Alex is trying to leave, he gets lost and wanders into the casino, where Desmond McCain and his group of rich friends are playing poker where the stakes are worth $25,000. Alex finds himself involved in this game later, and he ends up winning that money. However he really does not want it, so he gives it to Desmond McCain's charity. Later, at a school trip, Alex gives the contents of Leonard Straik's computer to MI6, and that still doesn't tell them anything about McCain's true ambitions. Later, McCain, Straik, and McCain's assistant Myra Beckett are in a film studio in West London, near Heathrow Airport, and Alex Rider is there once more, taking note of what they are doing. McCain then looks up Alex Rider, and then finds out that he is an agent for MI6, and this is when he decides to end his life. He sends people to Chelsea in a FedEx van, and they capture Alex and bring him to Kenya, where McCain is waiting to kill him. As the book unfolds, it is later revealed that McCain is still a true villain and a fraud. He did an online course, and was then made into a Reverend, and he now knew what he needed to do to steal people's money. Eventually, Alex escapes, and an RAW agent from India, Rahim, helps him. McCain eventually finds them and kills Rahim, but immediately afterwards Alex kills McCain. A quote during the time when he dies is, "'Is that the best you can do? Send a drum to run me over? You are a child, aren't you? This isn't a game, Alex. Do you know how many years I spent planning this operation?' McCain asked. His voice carried across the short distance. He was leaning forward, one foot still perched on the drum, his elbow resting on his thigh. 'Do you have any idea what it meant to me? All I wanted was my rightful place in the world. Money is power and I was going to have more than you could possibly imagine.' 'And now you are going to pay. I'm going to shoot you now. Not once but several times. And then I'm going to walk away.' He lifted the gun. 'Good-bye Alex. You're going on a slow journey to hell.' 'Let me know what it's like,' Alex said. The fuel drum exploded. In the seconds before he had sent it rolling, Alex had attached the black gel-ink pen that Smithers had given him to the metal surface. And it had worked. One minute, McCain was taking aim, the next he had disappeared in a pillar of flame that roared into the sky. It really was like a judgment from heaven. He didn't even have time to scream." McCain was a bad man, and because of what he did in his life, he deserved such a bad end.
Big Ideas: One of the main recurring ideas in this book, and in the whole series for that matter, is the idea of underestimating Alex's potential because of his age. For example, none of Alex's adversaries realize that he is a major threat to them. They all think that he is nonexistent because he is just 14, and they all think they can take him for granted. For example, Desmond McCain failed to realize that MI6 might have given him weapons. He had two gelignite (gel) pens, that exploded whenever he made them, and if McCain had realized this, he might not have died, and he might have succeeded in his horrible plan and killed Alex. Also, when Alan Blunt told the RAF (Royal Air Force) that Alex was in trouble, and that McCain had created genetically modified wheat that was poisonous, and would kill anyone that ate it, they listened, but then immediately returned to London. By the time the RAF got there, Alex had drowned the wheat, and they thought that it was a huge lake, suggesting that the RAF did not understand the severity of the situation, and just went back because they thought the situation was under control, but in reality, one of their agents, who is a child, was risking his life out there. This idea of naivete in CrocodileTears. is huge, and there is only one other idea that surpasses it in significance, and that is the idea of Crocodile Tears. The book Crocodile Tears is named after an idiom "to shed Crocodile Tears." This means to cry but not really mean it. The idea behind this is Desmond McCain. Charity organizations are supposed to give money to disaster zones out of the goodness of their hearts, but Desmond McCain sheds 'Crocodile Tears' in that he pretends to cry along with the victims, but in reality he laughs because these people give him money to carry out his devilish, evil plans.
5 words:
Gelignite- A type of easily concealed explosive. "They're gel-ink pens...but the gel in this instance is short for gelignite."
Statuette- Little statue, like the type you win at the Oscars. "A dozen golden statuettes stood in a line and one of them had his name on it: Journalist of the Year."
Freelance- Someone working in some job who does not belong to a certain company. "He'd been drinking with a couple of freelance journalists and somehow they'd all ended up around the slot machine, shoveling coins in."
Vandalized- To destroy or deface public property. "Someone must have vandalized the ATM, some lout who'd had too much to drink."
Lout- A drunk idiot. "Someone must have vandalized the ATM, some lout who'd had too much to drink."
Drawing:
Explanation of Drawing: I drew a crocodile crying because that is what the book is called. It has a reason for this name, and this is because "To shed Crocodile Tears" means to show fake affection. The main reason why this is called Crocodile Tears is because of Desmond McCain, an ex-conman who pretends to have turned a new leaf but really hasn't. He established a charity that would steal people's money, and use it for his own benefit. He would pretend to shed tears along with his victims, and his fake ordainment would help people think that he does, but in reality he doesn't, and on the contrary he laughs because he receives more money than he ever has before. Instead of using the money he receives to help people who need money, he uses the money he gets to carry out his evil plans like blowing up Chennai and poisoning wheat in Kenya.
Major Conflict: The major conflict in this story is between Alex Rider and Desmond McCain. First, Alex beat Desmond at cards, and from that moment until the moment he died, Desmond McCain knew that Alex was not an ordinary teenager. Then, at Greenfields, all the witnesses reported that a teenager was the one who hacked into their files, and when Desmond McCain saw someone running through their corridors, and immediately he remembered the boy he met. Alex Rider was his name. Also, at that studio in West London, he saw a boy trying to eavesdrop on them, and he set the building on fire, and Alex Rider narrowly escapes. Later, some of his men decide to finish Alex once and for all, and abduct him in a FedEx truck, drug him, and take him to Africa. Then, Alex is flown to a small Kikuyu village outside of Nairobi where he meets McCain, where he plans to finally kill Alex once and for all. He plans to feed him to crocodiles, which in his mind, was a nice, swift end to Alex Rider. However, he underestimates Alex's capabilities. Alex escapes Desmond, and coincidentally runs into a RAW agent from India named Rahim, who is also trying to kill McCain. He blows up the Simba Dam, thus flooding the wheat that Desmond was going to poison to kill people in Africa. Desmond then wanted people to donate their money to his charity. Alex then reunites with Rahim, then they fly to Laikipia, a small airport on the way to Nairobi, where McCain kills Rahim, and Alex, waiting for the right moment, sends a drum filled with oil with an explosive rolling towards McCain, and two minutes later, it goes off, killing the conman.
Similar Works: This book reminds me of those really intense movies like Mission Impossible, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, etc. This is because it is about intelligence agents doing nearly impossible work at neck-breaking speeds, and those types of books interest me because the action never stops. There's always some unexpected turn of events which lead to something that the reader or viewer of the film could not have possibly expected. This never ceases to amaze me. Another book this is similar to is the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is similar in that they are both young boys in their teenage years, they both have gifts, and they are part of a world that not many other people can imagine. Harry Potter is a wizard, and not many muggles know what it's like to be one. Alex is an intelligence agent, and NO other teenagers know what being one is like. Also, these books' plots are similar in that they must stop these villains by the end of the adventure or else the villain will wreak havoc on the world. However, the Alex Rider series features a new villain every book, and Harry Potter's remains the same. Another similarity this book has is with the Percy Jackson in that their parents were very special. John Rider was one of the most famous intelligence agents working for MI6, and Poseidon was the God of the Sea. These boys have inherited some of their father's talents. Also, they are similar in that they are both very thrilling series with new challenges in every book. The difference is that Percy Jackson has a lot of mythology in it, and Alex Rider does not.
Title: Crocodile Tears
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Reasons: I chose this book because I like the way Horowitz writes his novels. Every page, something unexpected happens, and it makes the reader not want to put the book down at all.
Genre: First, Crocodile Tears fits into the Young Adult fiction genre. This is because the protagonist is a fourteen year old spy named Alex Rider. No kid has done what he has done in the first fourteen years of his life. He has worked for MI6 for seven previous missions, and he has more physical and emotional scars as a result of it than any other youngster should have. He also was shot by a sniper, and the bullet nearly killed him. These intense missions, combined with the author's diction and writing style, make the book very interesting and intriguing to mostly young adults. Second, it is also in the spy and thriller genre. It fits perfectly into this one because it is basically about a "teenage James Bond." He is always being used by MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, because of his size and body shape. As he is relatively small, he is relatively nimble and agile, and he can fit into spaces where other agents can't, thus resulting in his usefulness. In his other missions, he has had to hack a computer program, rescue kids from a boarding school owned by a psychopath, prevent the Russians from blowing up the US, preventing a pop singer from committing genocide towards Muslims, stopped a massive criminal organization from poisoning all school children in London, prevented a Russian madman from launching the ISS at Washington DC, preventing Scorpia from creating a tsunami, and last but not least, he stopped the criminal who was involved in the blowing up of an Indian nuclear plant. These types of books interest me because I was completely absorbed and enthralled by the action in them, and this is the main reason why I decided to read the Alex Rider series.
Plot: The book Crocodile Tearsis interesting from the moment the book is opened. For example, it begins with Ravi Chandra, a poor man from the streets of Chennai, India being bribed by some conmen. He was told that if he set off the Jowada Nuclear Plant to the south of Chennai, he would get rich, could move to Bangalore, India, and eventually take his children to Disney World. He detonates the nuclear plant, resulting in the deaths of 900,000 people and the injuring of 2.5 million others. On the contrary to what was promised, he dies, and his family did not reap the benefit. After the catastrophe, the first organization to act is First Aid, a charity who is owned by a ex-prisoner and now Reverend named Desmond McCain. Meanwhile, Alex Rider, an agent for MI6, is at a Scottish castle, celebrating New Year's with his girlfriend Sabina Pleasure and her family. The host of this party happens to be Desmond McCain, the founder of this charity. Edward Pleasure, Sabina's father, is writing a celebrity profile on McCain, and he felt that this is the best way to get to know him a bit. At this party, Alex loses his way, and finds himself in McCain's [[#|casino]], and he ends up playing cards with him and many other celebrities, who happen to be wagering money. Alex is broke, but McCain is generous and gives him some money to bet with. Alex, who felt slighted by McCain, was then determined to win, and he finally wins $25,000.00. this makes McCain suspicious of the true identity of this boy. As Edward, Sabina, and Alex are driving to their hotel, their tire gets shot by a sniper and they fall into a lake. They are almost drowning when they are rescued by Rahim, an Indian Intelligence Agent whose identity is initially unknown as he is under cover. Rahim happens to work for the R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) section of the Indian Government. This is a highly sophisticated intelligence agency. Alex was on christmas break during this adventure, and after he returns to school, he studies genetically modified plants. After this, Alan Blunt, the chief of MI6, and Mrs. Jones, his assistant, notice something peculiar about Leonard Straik, the head of a huge, British company called Greenfields. This company produces genetically modified plants. After having had a break from MI6 for nearly six months, Alex is recruited once more, and is debriefed on his investigation of Leonard Straik. His invasion of this facility is made easier in that Brookland Academy, his school, has planned a field trip there. He invades the facility, jams the cameras, sneaks into the Straik's office, and hacks his computer. He then listens to a conversation between Straik and another man, who Alex later realizes is Desmond McCain, and they are talking about shady diabolical plans. At the end of this meeting, Leonard Straik realizes that his computer has been hacked. Alex has to escape, and to do so he first gets stuck in the Poison Dome, the part of the plant facility housing poisonous plants. He then is confronted by guards, and escapes through the chimney, at which point he jumps on his school bus and that breaks a few of his ribs. His carelessness gets him suspended from his school, and this time off gives Alex to follow the two men. He goes to this facility near Heathrow Airport, and watches their activities. Alex is spotted, at which point McCain and Straik set the building on fire He then has to escape by crawling through a vent, and narrowly does so. Then, McCain realizes they have been foiled as he is nowhere to be found, and on both accounts, his sources reveal a teenager is responsible. Then, one day, Alex is walking to school, and he sees a FedEx truck where no one lives, so he walks up to it, and is detained, thrown inside the bus, and driven off into the distance. This is when the true story begins.
Characters:
3. Desmond McCain: Desmond McCain is an ordained (Reverend) ex-conman who owns a large charity organization called First Aid. This organization was the one that responded to the Chennai Nuclear Disaster first, and hence received the majority of the proceeds that were donated. Alex Rider first encounters him at a Scottish Castle with Edward and Sabina Pleasure. He meets him when Edward is interviewing him because he has to write a section in the newspapers about a biography on Desmond McCain. While Alex is trying to leave, he gets lost and wanders into the casino, where Desmond McCain and his group of rich friends are playing poker where the stakes are worth $25,000. Alex finds himself involved in this game later, and he ends up winning that money. However he really does not want it, so he gives it to Desmond McCain's charity. Later, at a school trip, Alex gives the contents of Leonard Straik's computer to MI6, and that still doesn't tell them anything about McCain's true ambitions. Later, McCain, Straik, and McCain's assistant Myra Beckett are in a film studio in West London, near Heathrow Airport, and Alex Rider is there once more, taking note of what they are doing. McCain then looks up Alex Rider, and then finds out that he is an agent for MI6, and this is when he decides to end his life. He sends people to Chelsea in a FedEx van, and they capture Alex and bring him to Kenya, where McCain is waiting to kill him. As the book unfolds, it is later revealed that McCain is still a true villain and a fraud. He did an online course, and was then made into a Reverend, and he now knew what he needed to do to steal people's money. Eventually, Alex escapes, and an RAW agent from India, Rahim, helps him. McCain eventually finds them and kills Rahim, but immediately afterwards Alex kills McCain. A quote during the time when he dies is, "'Is that the best you can do? Send a drum to run me over? You are a child, aren't you? This isn't a game, Alex. Do you know how many years I spent planning this operation?' McCain asked. His voice carried across the short distance. He was leaning forward, one foot still perched on the drum, his elbow resting on his thigh. 'Do you have any idea what it meant to me? All I wanted was my rightful place in the world. Money is power and I was going to have more than you could possibly imagine.' 'And now you are going to pay. I'm going to shoot you now. Not once but several times. And then I'm going to walk away.' He lifted the gun. 'Good-bye Alex. You're going on a slow journey to hell.' 'Let me know what it's like,' Alex said. The fuel drum exploded. In the seconds before he had sent it rolling, Alex had attached the black gel-ink pen that Smithers had given him to the metal surface. And it had worked. One minute, McCain was taking aim, the next he had disappeared in a pillar of flame that roared into the sky. It really was like a judgment from heaven. He didn't even have time to scream." McCain was a bad man, and because of what he did in his life, he deserved such a bad end.
Big Ideas: One of the main recurring ideas in this book, and in the whole series for that matter, is the idea of underestimating Alex's potential because of his age. For example, none of Alex's adversaries realize that he is a major threat to them. They all think that he is nonexistent because he is just 14, and they all think they can take him for granted. For example, Desmond McCain failed to realize that MI6 might have given him weapons. He had two gelignite (gel) pens, that exploded whenever he made them, and if McCain had realized this, he might not have died, and he might have succeeded in his horrible plan and killed Alex. Also, when Alan Blunt told the RAF (Royal Air Force) that Alex was in trouble, and that McCain had created genetically modified wheat that was poisonous, and would kill anyone that ate it, they listened, but then immediately returned to London. By the time the RAF got there, Alex had drowned the wheat, and they thought that it was a huge lake, suggesting that the RAF did not understand the severity of the situation, and just went back because they thought the situation was under control, but in reality, one of their agents, who is a child, was risking his life out there. This idea of naivete in Crocodile Tears. is huge, and there is only one other idea that surpasses it in significance, and that is the idea of Crocodile Tears. The book Crocodile Tears is named after an idiom "to shed Crocodile Tears." This means to cry but not really mean it. The idea behind this is Desmond McCain. Charity organizations are supposed to give money to disaster zones out of the goodness of their hearts, but Desmond McCain sheds 'Crocodile Tears' in that he pretends to cry along with the victims, but in reality he laughs because these people give him money to carry out his devilish, evil plans.
5 words:
Drawing:
Explanation of Drawing: I drew a crocodile crying because that is what the book is called. It has a reason for this name, and this is because "To shed Crocodile Tears" means to show fake affection. The main reason why this is called Crocodile Tears is because of Desmond McCain, an ex-conman who pretends to have turned a new leaf but really hasn't. He established a charity that would steal people's money, and use it for his own benefit. He would pretend to shed tears along with his victims, and his fake ordainment would help people think that he does, but in reality he doesn't, and on the contrary he laughs because he receives more money than he ever has before. Instead of using the money he receives to help people who need money, he uses the money he gets to carry out his evil plans like blowing up Chennai and poisoning wheat in Kenya.
Major Conflict: The major conflict in this story is between Alex Rider and Desmond McCain. First, Alex beat Desmond at cards, and from that moment until the moment he died, Desmond McCain knew that Alex was not an ordinary teenager. Then, at Greenfields, all the witnesses reported that a teenager was the one who hacked into their files, and when Desmond McCain saw someone running through their corridors, and immediately he remembered the boy he met. Alex Rider was his name. Also, at that studio in West London, he saw a boy trying to eavesdrop on them, and he set the building on fire, and Alex Rider narrowly escapes. Later, some of his men decide to finish Alex once and for all, and abduct him in a FedEx truck, drug him, and take him to Africa. Then, Alex is flown to a small Kikuyu village outside of Nairobi where he meets McCain, where he plans to finally kill Alex once and for all. He plans to feed him to crocodiles, which in his mind, was a nice, swift end to Alex Rider. However, he underestimates Alex's capabilities. Alex escapes Desmond, and coincidentally runs into a RAW agent from India named Rahim, who is also trying to kill McCain. He blows up the Simba Dam, thus flooding the wheat that Desmond was going to poison to kill people in Africa. Desmond then wanted people to donate their money to his charity. Alex then reunites with Rahim, then they fly to Laikipia, a small airport on the way to Nairobi, where McCain kills Rahim, and Alex, waiting for the right moment, sends a drum filled with oil with an explosive rolling towards McCain, and two minutes later, it goes off, killing the conman.
Similar Works: This book reminds me of those really intense movies like Mission Impossible, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, etc. This is because it is about intelligence agents doing nearly impossible work at neck-breaking speeds, and those types of books interest me because the action never stops. There's always some unexpected turn of events which lead to something that the reader or viewer of the film could not have possibly expected. This never ceases to amaze me. Another book this is similar to is the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This is similar in that they are both young boys in their teenage years, they both have gifts, and they are part of a world that not many other people can imagine. Harry Potter is a wizard, and not many muggles know what it's like to be one. Alex is an intelligence agent, and NO other teenagers know what being one is like. Also, these books' plots are similar in that they must stop these villains by the end of the adventure or else the villain will wreak havoc on the world. However, the Alex Rider series features a new villain every book, and Harry Potter's remains the same. Another similarity this book has is with the Percy Jackson in that their parents were very special. John Rider was one of the most famous intelligence agents working for MI6, and Poseidon was the God of the Sea. These boys have inherited some of their father's talents. Also, they are similar in that they are both very thrilling series with new challenges in every book. The difference is that Percy Jackson has a lot of mythology in it, and Alex Rider does not.
Link: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/430104871